Morning journal and courier., 1887-06-18

mand from those great days, its high and
solemn obligation. Before we leave this
monument to tell its story to the generations
to come, it is fitting that we should gather
here, fellow-citizens who have part in those
grand memories, youth upon whom the bap-
tism of that holy flame of patriotism should
fall, comrades who know in what valor these
men died, and it is the grateful duty, which
you would have me seek to fulfill, to revive
once more in pictorial speech those fading
scenes, to affirm again to the passing genera
ton the eternal truths for which this monu-
freedom, of honor, and of country, in which
We have laid these stones, and in which we
| would now dedicate this work of our hands.
The booming of the cannon at early morn
from our ships of wer brings back the hours
when northern sailors showed that they had
hearts firm as iron even though they must
pass forts in wooden ships; and New Haven
remembers with pride that day when the
first iron clad, built by the contract of one of
1 her citizens, saved from swift destruction
| northern ports; and one name which veterans
of the Grand Army wear o-day as an homer
| upon their badges-the name of that Chris
| tian, patriot, commander, Admiral Fosts-
4 shall never be forgotten here as long as this
| monument shall stand.
| At the beat of the drum, and the bugle's
call, those scenes leap up in memory, and
| they who had part in them are living again
1 III IUOS0 oASSJ 30 OlSLaAb, 80 u6aF, 81 real, 81
1 like the strangeRess of dream. We hear
| again the note of defiance from Sumter which
| awoke the country from its dream of peace.
We meet in public places and are stirred once
| more by voices made eloquent by patriotism.
We see the old flag become respondent to the
/ eyes of men with new light of liberty upon
| its folds. Our souls kindle to the enthusl-
| asms of the war. Defeat, sudden, bitter, dis
| astrous, but deepens purpose. The people
| grow conscious of their divine call to a work
| for the ages.
Noble youth are fastening to the front,
like Major Winthrop, New Ravens first mar
I tyr in the war, who falls nearer the enc
| mics breastworks than any man he led
| Others, like Major Blake, wait only long
enough to see that it is to be zone of the Piv-
| otal wars of the world" and leave home and
/ brilliant prospects to die rallying their com
| mands in the fercest charge, as he DIED TO
l live henceforth in the triumph OF liberty
| throughout the world. And others, like
Lieut.. Dutton upon that same fatal day at
l Cedar Mountain, and Lieut.. Col. Merwin in
! that historic wheat field at Gettysburg, think
| ing only of his suffering regiment as. he fell,
and Capt: Chapman and Col. Peck struck
down with the word "Forward" upon his
lips, and saying that he could not die in
worthier cause, and Capt. Hitchcock wounded
aud dying within the enemies lines, and
Capt. Wheeler throwing his battery into
deadly gap, and shouting, 81 will support
upon our roll of honor-Colonel Chatfeld,
Captains Allen, Bronson, Gerish, Lowell,
Peck and Taylor; Adjutants Clafee, Smith
and Starr; Lieutenants Bradley, Downs, Ben
ton, Clark, Comes, Doolittle, Meisner, Stalee,
and Stillman; these and many unknown,
except to those who loved and missed them,
but not by US unhonored-these all died for
their country-they were caught up as by
chariots of fire into the heavens, and their
sacri6cial death this sacred stone shall keep
in perpetual remembrance.
We are living again to-day in those dread
full hours, through those anxious months,
when after the battle we read some dear
name in the list of the wounded and the
missing, when fathers and mothers fastened
to search battle-felds and hospitals for only
sons, when prisons opened their dark
mouths to enclose the captured in q living
death, and many brave men, left wounded on
the field, like Major Osborne and Lieuten-
ant Bishop, died in captivity. And upon
that ever growing list of the lost in battle,
with the names of our native born, appeared
in one and the same glory of obedience unto
death the names of men who had made our
country their country and our people,
their people; Germans, like Cap
tain Sweitzer who fell at FREDERICKSBURG,
and many q son of Ireland, cheerful in camp,
enduring on the march, and left dead on the
battle field with musket grasped, bayonet
fixed, and face toward the foe. The cannon
and drums awake US once more to those
splendid, awful hours; the long march has
Just been made; the columns head has halted;
the officers are riding 20 and fro; quickly
the lines are formed; from the skirmish line
they are bearing the wounded past US to the
rear; the men are standing shoulder to shout
der, silent and firm, the rustic of the dead
leaves of the forests can be heard beneath
their feet;-what thoughts of home, and dear
faces far away, and sound of children's voic-
es are in their hearts, and the great God in
his serene eternity above; the colors are ad
vanced; that word of command which once
heard and obeyed can never be forgotten,
Forward" rings down the line, which
suddenly leaps up and on like a flame; the
shells shrieking like demons of despair
bushes laid bare by the whizzing balls, the
charge,-swords cleaning in the front-col-
ors struck down and grasped again and again,
batteries flashing in mems faces-the fierce
angel of death riding down men by troops,
yet robbed of its terrors by courage as OF inn
mortals-the sullen retreat-the rallying of
the remnant that were saved-the charge
yet once more of broken lines against foes as
determined-the welcome descent of night,
the evenings peace, the silent stars, the
thanksgivings OF comrades who had been
swept apart in the battles storm, finding
their commands again, and with tears in
brave eyes grasping hands and then daring
death once more to snatch back the wounded
from between the lines; and silently here and
there they are covering with leaves and scanty
earth the dead, to lie in graves unknown, but
which shall be decked each returning spring
of the years of liberty by the flowers upon
which hang the dcwdrops of heaven. Oh,
living men-to-day while children then unborn
wear freedoms colors, and represent these
States unit, veterans look once more upon
those old corps badges, and receive the bene-
diction of the saved nations flag. We know
rot whether we wake or dream, whether the
he orr hn
1.-THE long years and go,
The sorrowfal, splendid past,
With its glory and its woe,
Seems never to have been.
Seems never to have been?
o sombre days and grand,
How ye crowd back once more,
By the Potomac and the Cumberland,
And in the valleys of the Shenandoah!
When we remember how they died,
In dark ravine, and on the mountain side,
In leaguered fort and fre-encircled town,
Upon the gunboat's splintered deck,
And where the iron ships went down
In the crushed and Redeemed wreck
By lone lagoons and streams,
How their dear lives were spent
In the weary hospital tent,
In the cockpit's crowded hive.
How they languished and died,
In the black stockades-it seems
Ignoble to be aliver'
Comrades-We who are living, as we gath
er around this monument to our dead, look
up to behold upon its summit the image of
peace. That glad day of peace comes back
again; we rest at last at Appomattox; we
live again in that hour of triumph and of
reconciliation; two armies are cheering be-
cause both, having done all, going,
home; two armies are become one host of
defenders of one common land; and in all
our country to-day from remotest north to
farthest south, none love peace more than
the soldiers of those two armies who made it,
In the reconciliation of that day when Lee
and Grant joined hands. the veterans who
had braved death on many fields, but whom
God had not chosen for the country to hon.
or as he honors her glorious dead, went
home to receive the welcome and to enjoy
the long years of prosperity which others
had died that we might gain. Washington
was full of troops, but at last, at last, their